Child sex abuses charges filed against Price couple

Multiple counts of child sexual abuse were filed Wednesday in Seventh District Court against a Price couple. Additional charges are expected to be filed against a third person. Price police allege that about a half dozen children, aged 2 to 15 at the time of the offenses, were victimized over a period of about three years. The victims were male and female.

Deputy County Attorney Jeremy Humes filed the charges with the court.

Amanda Nicole Romano, 26, was charged with five counts of object rape of a child, five counts of sodomy upon a child, one count of child abuse, and four counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child.

All counts except for the child abuse charge against Amanda Romano are first-degree felonies. The child abuse count is a class A misdemeanor. Both were arrested and booked into Carbon County Jail Nov. 9.

A third person, Tyler Barney, was arrested Nov. 10 but has not yet been formally charged.

Price Police Capt. Bill Barnes said Thursday that the charges stemmed from an investigation by Detective Ed Malmgren. Malmgren had been contacted in late October by investigators from the state Division of Child and Family Services, who had been tipped off by a citizen.

"In 28-and-a-half years of police work, this is as troubling as anything I've seen," Barnes said. Malmgren said he was equally shaken by the findings of his investigation.